Dear Rabbi ____________,
My wife and I made aliyah (immigration )three years ago from New York, and are blessed to be living incredible lives in Yerushalyaim, the Holy City. Over Passover, your name came up in conversation at our Shabbat (Sabbath) table which is why I am writing to you today. You see, I grew up in the Five Towns, in Cedarhurst, and used to live the pretty typical “Modern Orthodox” life. I went to some expensive Yeshiva, where instead of teaching me Lashon Kodesh/Hebrew – so that I might actually know what I say when I daven (pray) 3 times a day, or say a bracha (blessing), or live in Israel, and instead of teaching me Bible/Tanach; so that I might learn Jewish history and have some sense of context for what was and where we are headed, and instead of teaching me about the centrality of Israel – so that I might understand about Hashem's gift to His people, the point of the Exodus from Egypt, and the message of the pogroms, anti-Semitic riots, and the Holocaust, I instead learned how important it was to wear a hat and jacket when I davened without understanding what I was saying, and how important it was not to speak to girls, and I did learn many other things that are laughably irrelevant to what it means to be a Jew in the world.
However, one of the few things in my world of Judaism that I looked forward to, was attending your Shabbat Shuva and Shabbat Hagadol drashot (lectures) . Your insight, wisdom, and wit, mixed with Chassidic tales and Kabbalistic undertones always left me feeling inspired and as if I just understood a deep secret of Judaism that renewed and refreshed me. Watching the “new” building of your synagogue go up, along with many people joining it, and a myriad of Yeshiva guys who became your Chassidim, I felt ecstatic and simply overjoyed that you would have the opportunity to touch many more people’s lives especially when so many are lacking the knowledge of what Judaism is all about.
During Pesach, it saddened me greatly and really ripped into my soul, when one of the guests at our lunch table told us that she had asked a “great Rav in the Five Towns” for a bracha to move to Eretz Yisroel, and he told her that he cannot give her that bracha, but he can give her a bracha that she “could be there for 1 year.” When she slipped, and mentioned that you were that Rav, I just felt so disappointed and utterly broken by your words. Words that shackled this lady to the galut, that imprisoned her to the exile, much like the words of the Rabbanim in pre-Nazi Germany chained people to their shtetls, not to move to Eretz Yisroel, as written in great detail by Rav Yisroel Shlomo Teichtel who admitted his huge mistake and begged for forgiveness in his book, Eim Habanim Semaycha before he was killed by the Nazis..
I was so devastated by the harm that you might be causing, actively keeping people from ascending and following Hashem’s words, actively keeping people in the galut, and then I remembered that I am someone who judges kindly, is dan lkaf zchut. I immediately put on the brakes of my judgment of you and chose to send you this letter instead.
I am writing because I would like to clarify this matter. Is it true that you withheld a bracha from someone who wanted to fulfill a basic mitzvah? Do you discourage all of your congregants from fulfilling this central mitzvah? I would further like to inquire if you intend to fulfill your obligation of living in Eretz Yisroel, and if not why?
It has become so challenging for me to relate to people who choose to live the life of the galut, especially because nowadays, every second that one chooses the punishment of the Diaspora he is essentially rejecting the gift of Eretz Yisrael. An entire generation of Jews died in the desert with few exceptions because of the simple sin of slander, lashon harah. spoken against the Land of Israel, and yet people nowadays still don’t take it seriously. At a time when the Five Towns is growing “frummer” , more “machmer” (more stringently observant), and taking on more chumras (extra restrictions) than there are actual mitzvot in the Torah, it is so shocking to see those same people finding the loopholes, justifications, and “kullot” (way to avoid restrictions) why they needn’t live in Israel.
Most of the Jews of America have turned their excuses into an ideology, which is blatant sheker (falsehood), and of course their Rabbis cannot call them out on it because they chose it too. It is a sad joke that people in your community are more concerned with shidduch (blind date) resumes, buying their glatt kosher fruits and veggis from Glatt Farm, and debating about the dangers and peril of attending a Lipa Shmeltzer concert, rather than caring about the authentic Jewish experience that they and their families could be having in the Jewish Homeland that they supposedly daven for 3 times a day.
As I am sure that you can imagine, the holidays, the weekly Torah reading, and the day to day living in Jerusalem take on the most magical meaning. Picking Etrogim off the trees here, praying as close as I possibly can to the Temple Mount, Har Habayit, taking trumot and maasrot (tithes mandated for Israeli grown produce) from our fruits and vegetables, experiencing real hashgacha pratit, watching the IDF; the first Jewish army since the times of King Shlomo, seeing the sheva minim (7 species of Israel) growing in their proper seasons, and watching the prophet Jeremiah's verse “Vshavua Banim Ligvulam” (the sons will return to their borders) come to life every time I go to Ben Gurion to welcome a Nefesh BNefesh plane of hundreds who have made aliyah, well...there just simply are no words. It is exactly as David says, “Living in the Courtyard of Hashem” and experiencing what Judaism really looks like when it is lived where we are meant to be. And just to add, Baruch Hashem, since my jaded Judaism of the Exile Yeshiva system, I now have a completely rejuvenated Judaism full of emunah and bitachon (faith) and a love of Torah and its authentic Rabbanim.
A few months ago on a gorgeous erev Shabbat (Friday afternoon) right after going to the mikveh in a maayan (spring), I was walking back with a friend of mine who also made moved to Eretz Yisroel from New York, and we were just glowing as we shared our Kiddush Hashem (sanctification of G-d's name) stories of the week and reflected on how lucky we are to be living Biblical destiny here.
This is not a matter of condemnation and negativity, but rather a call to action to remind us of who we are and who we are meant to be in the world. After all, at least 7 of our blessings in the shemona esrei that we pray 3 times a day are about building up Zion, the redemption, the Temple, and the ingathering of the Exiles. Do Jews in the Exile not know what they pray for or have they simply stopped praying for those things?
You see, I am sure that you would agree that probably the best role model of who to look at as the quintessential Jew is Avraham Avinu - the "ProtoJew". The first time that Hashem speaks with the first Jew, He tells him to leave everything he knows, his father's house, where he grew up, and (in modern day translation) his favorite glatt kosher takeout, Costco, and his corporate job. Avraham does exactly what he is asked to do without excuses and justifications and goes to the land that he will be shown.
One might say that was irrational and impractical to do, but that is the essence of what we are meant to learn from our great great grandfather - the first Jew - Avraham. One could also say that it was illogical for the Jewish people to leave the land of Egypt where they had jobs and they had their land of Goshen to raise their animals. Did this Moses personality really expect the Jewish people to betray their Egyptian task masters and leave without even putting in for vacation time? What if Israelite Rabbis of Egypt gave up their pulpit positions at the various Young Israel of Egypt shuls, would they really be able to build a new congregation while traveling in the desert or would they no longer be needed because of Moshe and the Almighty's Presence? And then to slaughter the Egyptian deities - sheep, and put it proudly on their doorpost, and then even more ridiculously...to follow Moshe into the desert with no real source of food, drink or resources??? Absolutely ludicrous, right?!
Yet all us Jews who are alive today are descendants of the 20% of the Jews who left Egypt to follow Hashem and Moses, and not the 80% of the Jews who were killed in Egypt during the plague of Darkness because they wanted to be practical and responsible and stay in the familiar Exile of Egypt instead of leaving to serve Hashem.
The logical rational Jews were killed inthe plague of darkness, choshech, because they chose their logic over Hashem's word. This idea of choosing Hashem's instructions over our human-created logic is exactly the message of the Sacrifice of Isaac, the akeidah. In other words: Your great reason why you are not living in Israel doesn’t equal that you live in Israel. Just like someone’s story why they aren’t keeping Shabbat or why they don’t have time to put tefilin on in the morning doesn’t get them off the hook either. The possibility of you and your congregation making aliyah, or rather the possibility of you as a leader causing hundreds of people in the community and all over the world to do the greatest Kiddush Hashem demanded of us, is why I took the time to write this email to you.
Why not choose to be a part of Hashem's glorious nation making the right choice? There is no glory in sitting at the Rabbi's table in the Shushan of America at the feast of Obamashveros while the Gentiles flaunt the destruction of the Temple, and the Jews are too wrapped up in the celebration to come back here and build it. There is no glory in being a part of the million Jews that Ezra and his group of 42,000 who all loved Hashem, left behind when they ascended to Eretz Yisroel to rebuild the Temple. Even though, I am sure that those left behind in Babylon were busy “being shtark and learning Toirah” with their 'Rebbis'.
You have such an opportunity to choose Hashem, as in the call of the Chashmonaim which echoed Moses at Mount Sinai, calling out , “Mi LaHashem Elai” (those who are with the Lord, come to me) while on the other side were all the Hellenized Jews – the equivalent of today's corporate American Jews raising their assimilated children on American Idol and materialism and giving their children names like Brittany, Chloe, Tiffany, and Scout after the Hollywood role models that they read about in magazines. The cowardice of the American pulpit Rabbi with regards to the centrality of Israel and aliyah in our lives has to end – why not be one of those on Ezra's team to end it?
I know that you have a tremendous opportunity to, as Rabbi Shimshon Nadel says, “lead by example and leave by example.” You can choose to lead your people home again back to the Land flowing with Milk and Honey. Thank G-d, that you are such a great Rav who has made such a difference in the community, because that will allow for a maximum Kiddush Hashem to occur in the world. Thank you for being an incredible leader, with deep, kind, and gentle words to say, a twinkle in the eye, someone with a pure holy heart, someone who I knew would be able to read this email and see the powerful possibility in it.
I write this letter with no arrogance or condescension, but just total and complete love from the heart - so please don't allow the evil inclination to see it any other way. By the way, my wife and I work in real estate here in Israel, and we have seen many communities make the move to be here and transition successfully. I excitedly wait for all of our family currently residing in the Exile to come home and celebrate the next full cycle of holidays in Eretz Yisroel , with the Messiah as our King, and as true Light unto the Nations. As it says in the prayer shemona esrei in "Tikah Beshofar", " Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles and gather us together from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are you, Hashem, the King Who loves righteousness and judgement." Amen.
With blessings from the Holy City,
Simcha Gluck
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